Old age is inevitable and death is real

Why did Buddha gave up everything 2,500 years ago and went on a path to seek enlightenment? I am sure whatever he had seen when he slipped out from his palace had tremendously shook him. Old age, sickness and death were what he witnessed.

Old age is inevitable and death is real. And what comes after death no one knows. I mean, why do people actually hope for anything after passing on? I have a friend who told me that he seriously hope that death will not be the end of his existence, and he would like to continue to live on in some other forms, perhaps like a spirit, after death. And if death is really the end of him, he finds no purpose of living purposefully during the span of his life. But how would we know?

I, on the contrary, would hope differently. Oh come on, life is already full of sufferings, and when death comes, I would really wish that everything is over. No more decisions that need to be made, no more worries, no more heartaches, no more tears, and no more many other unpleasant things. End is End, period.